Comcast’s new glass and stainless steel tower will include 1.517 million rentable square feet and offer a new Four Seasons hotel and a soaring, block-long lobby with a glass-enclosed indoor plaza.

A columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is highly annoyed that a corporation ready to hand $45 billion in stock to Time Warner Cable is also getting $30 million in corporate welfare handouts, courtesy of Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Eric Hyle:

Regular readers might recall that I took Comcast to task recently for obtaining $30 million in state subsidies to help construct the new $1.2 billion Comcast Innovation and Technology Center in Philly. The public subsidy is about as necessary as any channel over the 500 level.

A Comcast official attempted to justify the public investment, saying your money is being used only on building-related infrastructure. I contended the company was sufficiently well-off to pick up the skyscraper’s entire cost, infrastructure included.

Comcast on Thursday went out of its way to prove me correct, purchasing its largest cable rival, Time Warner Cable, for an astonishing $45 billion. According to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, that amount exceeds the gross domestic products of nearly 130 nations, including Albania, Lebanon, Chad and Equatorial Guinea.

Hyle prepared this sample letter Pennsylvania readers can send off to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts to register their displeasure at having their pockets picked by a mega-corporation:

Mr. Brian Roberts, CEO
Comcast World Domination Headquarters
1701 JFK Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Dear Mr. Roberts:

It’s appalling that your obscenely wealthy corporation is relying on $30 million in state funding to build your gargantuan office tower in Philadelphia. If you have the cash to go all Moby Dick and swallow whole your largest cable competitor, you sure as (heck) don’t require a dime from hard-working Pennsylvania taxpayers.

As one of those aggrieved taxpayers, I demand that this $30 million be returned to the state immediately. If you are unwilling to do so, I demand that you provide any Pennsylvania Comcast customer who requests it free Showtime. The complimentary cable channel subscriptions will be in effect until their combined costs total the $30 million you wrongly are removing from the public till.

A failure to exercise either of these options will be taken by me as your implied consent that I can stop paying my monthly cable bill entirely because you feel guilty over taking millions of dollars you obviously don’t need.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,